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Statistics

February 15, 2008

New Materials Can Isolate and Capture CO2 More Efficiently with Five Times More Density than Current State of the Art

UCLA scientists have demonstrated that they can successfully isolate and capture carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, rising sea levels and the increased acidity of oceans. Their findings could lead to power plants efficiently capturing carbon dioxide without using toxic materials.

The carbon dioxide is captured using a new class of materials designed by Omar M. Yaghi, UCLA's Christopher S. Foote Professor of Chemistry and his group, shown above, called zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, or ZIFs. These are porous and chemically robust structures, with large surface areas, that can be heated to high temperatures without decomposition and boiled in water or organic solvents for a week and still remain stable.

"Now we have structures that can be tailored precisely to capture carbon dioxide and store it like a reservoir, as we have demonstrated. No carbon dioxide escapes. Nothing escapes — unless you want it to do so. We believe this to be a turning point in capturing carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere."

-- Omar M. Yaghi

Currently, the process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants involves the use of toxic materials and requires 20 to 30 percent of the plant's energy output, Yaghi said. By contrast, ZIFs can pluck carbon dioxide from other gases that are emitted and can store five times more carbon dioxide than the porous carbon materials that represent the current state-of-art.

Graduate students synthesized 25 ZIF crystal structures and demonstrated that three of them have high selectivity for capturing carbon dioxide (ZIF-68, ZIF-69, ZIF-70).

The inside of a ZIF can store gas molecules. Flaps that behave like the chemical equivalent of a revolving door allow certain molecules — in this case, carbon dioxide — to pass through and enter the reservoir while blocking larger molecules or molecules of different shapes.

In ZIFs 68, 69 and 70, Banerjee and Phan emptied the pores, creating an open framework. They then subjected the material to streams of gases -- carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, for example, and another stream of carbon dioxide and nitrogen — and were able to capture only the carbon dioxide.

Comments

I saw this on MITs technology review, which is a really good source of information. I suspect it will be a few years before we know if this approach will pan out. If so it would make the everslipping timetables for clean coal actually seem sensible, i.e. why spend big bucks on expensive chemical based carbon capture systems, when there is potentially much more cost effective stuff under research. Of course at this early stage this stuff is probably too uncertain to base policy on.

Al Fin: the problem with feeding coal-based co2 to plant matter is that it just re-emerges to the atmosphere eventually and adds to warming. The problem with coal based co2 is that it doesn't belong above the earth's crust at all. If it comes up, it needs to be sent back down to the mineral basis of our environment, permanently.

But Robert, we are afraid of the N word. So we will have to make this work. Most of the world just isn't as sensible as the French. For those coming up with clever carbon based products to absorb our emmisions, last I heard global CO2 emissions were 26GTons/year. In liquid form (density 1.98g/cm**2) that is over 13 cubic kilometers (3.2 cubic miles). And as our energy consumption goes up, that number does too. Thats an awful lot of product to make.

Promising new technology, but if and when it becomes widely adopted reminds of a situation in which the remedy is aimed at the symptom not the cure. Lowering CO2 should be part of a "global conscience" effort and not as a remedy the to the modern consumer's thwarted instinct, which in turn is wildly exploited by bogus-like "environmentally sensitive" marketeers.

I was impressed not just by the results, but also by the experimental methodology, where they used automation to rapidly search through thousands of possibilities. This allows nature to be clever without the scientists first having to be (except in setting up the overall scheme). Indeed, it appears they were still cranking out novel materials when they stopped to publish, so we should expect more interesting materials from them.

I think the challenge with powering air conditioning will be significant in warmer climates. Here in Perth Australia, cabin heat can easily climb over 70 C (158 F) when a vehicle is parked in the sun. A huge amount of power is then needed to cool the car down when you get back in. Fisker Automotive’s Karma hybrid has a solar panel to ventilate the cabin when the car’s parked. The Karma is a much higher end car than the Volt, but GM should seriously consider cabin ventilation - at least as an option.

Tim: a commercial aftermarket product which attaches to your window is available. See:
http://www.nextag.com/solar-powered-auto-cool/search-html
I have never used one of these, so this is not an endorsement. And it lacks the clean profile (probably hidden) that a designed into the vehicle product would have. The popular windshield reflectors also help somewhat.

Hey a bit late to write in since this post came out three weeks ago.
As regards Zinc-Air cells, is there any chance of using ZIF's to scrub the air from carbon dioxide before it enters the cell which degrades the electrrolyte.
Does it make Zinc-Air cells more useful? Still awating technology that allows in situ electrical recharging though, rather than regenerating the zinc and KOH.

I have been interseted in the concept of filling the Qattara depression to reduce sea levels, make fresh water, and remove CO2 from the seas using the Dealkalyzation principle. Out of 1000 lbs of Medeterranean
seawater roughly 1/4 lb is CO2 products. If the concetration can bae enhanced by 80 times before being dumped. the CO2 situation would be transformed from CO2 in the atmosphere to a 7000 Square mile 300 ft deep bicarbonate pill in the Sahara desert.

Is it possible to use this or a similar product in seawater. We used dealkalyzers in the power industry. CO2 in the form of cabonates, carbonic acids, and bicarbonates are 30 times the amount as in the atmosphere. If they can be removed and dumped in say the Dead Sea or Qattara depression. It can create electricity, lower sea levels, make fresh water and remove CO2 all at the same time.

the volume of water available in quattara depression and other low areas of middle east if filled would displace several inches of the world sea levels according to my arithmetic The cost of making such a ditch with explosives wouldnt be that much compared to the economic advantages gained as these areas are not very much populated yet the edges of the sea shore of the world generally are The evaporation of water would create more rain in these low rain areas as well